Our PRiceless voyage

It’s almost time to say goodbye to Italy and while I’m quite homesick, it’s still going to be tough to leave. Every day here has been filled with visual and intellectual thrills, from the incredibly preserved Roman ruins to the painting-perfect villages built on the sides and tops of so many mountains. We’ve covered a lot of ground through Hofstra‘s SCOinRome program, in no small part because of Professor Randy Hillebrand, whose love and knowledge of this country give him ample tools to craft an amazing schedule of places to be, things to do and people to meet.Of course, what truly made this program special were our 11 students, a mix of public relations and television production majors, who spent half their weekdays in class and some afternoons on various sites working on behalf of our Rome-based nonprofit client, Shoot 4 Change. It was a real-world, professional experience for them–held in another part of the world. In addition, the excitement they’ve expressed as they have visited and toured famous Italian landmarks and exquisite natural landscapes has made our voyage priceless in so many ways. Not to mention that most of us climbed to the top and walked the entire circumference of Mount Vesuvius (above photo) and lived to tell the tale!

Lastly, I’ve enjoyed engaging with and working alongside several of this country’s natives. Experiencing Italy through their eyes made my vision clearer. I felt less like a tourist and more like a person who has lived here for a while.

Among its many descriptions, public relations can be defined as moving messages effectively from a source to a targeted audience. There can be no better way to understand how to do so than by living in your client’s environment. The SCOinRome program has spent almost four weeks dwelling, working and playing in Italy, and it’s been an educational experience like no other.

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ABOUT ME

I'm an associate professor at Hofstra University and director of Hofstra's graduate program in public relations. For 27 years I held corporate, nonprofit, government, agency, and academic PR positions before doing what I love most: teaching. I'm a past president of the trade group Public Relations Professionals of Long Island and serve on the advisory board of the Museum of Public Relations. I'm also an active member of several professional organizations, and serve as faculty adviser to Hofstra's Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) chapter. I was honored to receive the 2016 Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award from Hofstra's Lawrence Herbert School of Communication.

While I'm immensely happy to play a role my students' achievements, I'm most proud of my four adult children, their significant others, and my two adorable grandsons. A native of Massapequa Park, N.Y., my wonderful wife Tema and I live in Great Neck, N.Y. with our high-maintenance beagle, Toby.